Doing good and doing well

Philanthrocapitalism, by Matthew Bishop and Michael Green

Some say there’s no such thing as pure charity. All altruistic gifts are rooted in the self-interest of the giver, whether the goal is to increase your social status or your tax portfolio. If that’s true, the only thing new about philanthrocapitalism is that people such as Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are being more upfront about the need to make money out of charity. And they are confident that combining business acumen with philanthropy will improve the world that made them rich in the first place.

Worth an estimated $30 billion, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation had long been the largest charity in the world, with more money to battle global health inequalities than the UN’s World Health Organisation. Then Warren Buffett gave Gates another $31 billion. The gift marked the launch of ‘billanthropy,’ or, as Matthew Bishop and Michael Green call it, ‘philanthrocapitalism’.